Never Fade Away: You Lit A Flame (ch. 18) (Patreon)

"L!" Jack shouted, entering their shared home to see that L had been busy. He had converted the area above them into some weird room that had a bunch of servers. The space between them was filled with something -- coolant, if she had to guess. Between the three rows of servers were what looked like tech with a shit ton of RAM sticks slotted into it. Ugly as hell, and half done at best. But, L was working on it.

"Yeah?" L questioned, looking more exhausted than he had a day ago. She ended up crashing at Becca's and spending the day there -- mostly to recover from the headache that no amount of drugs seemed to cure. Seems like he didn't get any sleep either.

"Tyger Claws. Tell me what you know about 'em," Jack demanded, crossing her arms over her chest. L blinked at her, like he needed a second to process the request. "Leadership, hot spots, whatever."

"I don't really know much. I don't actually have a grudge against them," L said, getting up from where he was installing more electronics. It was then that she noticed that the entire thing was connected by dark green electronic plastic that was inlaid with gold. That, and L was wearing a tank top and some shorts. Her heart clenched when she saw his scars. They were brutal looking in a… clinical way.

The ones up and down his arms were pronounced. A slight rising in the flesh told her that he had been cut up dozens of times along those lines. The other scars were fainter. Like the one she noticed on the bottom of his feet -- circle around the heel, straight line up to the toeline, following the pads of his feet and up to each toe. But, those lines were faint. A one and done. L didn't think anything of them but it was nothing short of a miracle that he was alive.

"Just give me what ya' got," Jack decided, looking away as she followed L into their home. She had been decorating. There was a lot of graffiti to take inspiration from. The dull walls had reminded her too much of the orphanage -- dull grays and whites. Now she needed color. In everything. Though, when they stopped by L's room, she saw that same blankness. Becca said it was a dude thing, but Jack didn't know how L could stand it. She'd go crazy if she had to deal with those walls anymore. And he made his bed, she saw.

"Here's what I know," L said, handing her a shard. She slotted it in. "It's not a lot, and it's mostly based on gigs that I encountered them on." Images flashed before Jack's eyes -- faces, names, locations. There was a really good fucking reason why everyone thought that L hated the Tyger Claws and why the Tyger Claws themselves thought it. L killed a fucking shit ton of them. Over a hundred and fifty over the course of three months. Hit a lot of their stores and gangoons rolling in the streets.

Most of it was centralized in Japantown and Kabuki. He had a web of information about the Tyger Claws command structure, complete with snippets of data he lifted from gangbangers to paint a picture. About three hundred names, but a good chunk of them had question marks beside them while their pictures were either mug shots or stills taken from security cameras.

Looking at it all, Jack was starting to think that maybe even L didn't know he had a grudge against the Tyger Claws. Because the data was more than 'not a lot.'

"I'll get my gun," L decided, guessing the reason why she was asking for the info. It was time to cross out some names. They were coming after L. She would rip every single fucking one of them into pieces for it.

"Fuck you," Jack rebuked, shoving L over to the bed with a flick of her wrist. "You're dead on your feet. Shit. How long have you even been up?"

"Five days," L admitted, sounding sheepish as he just accepted getting tossed like a ragdoll. He trusted her. He couldn't know, Jack decided. He couldn't ever know the truth. He would look at her differently. He would regret freeing her from that hell. "I ended up making a stimulant to help keep me going. Tastes awful, though."

"Get some fuckin' sleep," Jack decided.

"I know you can handle yourself, but take some backup with you, yeah? Becca's always down for anything. Kiwi is a pretty good Netrunner. Not as good as Lucy, but she's close," L advised, not getting up even though Jack killed the mass effect field around him. "Tyger Claws are big too. Don't-"

"Shut it," Jack interjected, feeling a rush of affection at his concern. It was a new and interesting feeling. And she liked new and interesting. "You're allowed to be a mother hen when you aren't about to die from sleep deprivation." She'd just kill all the Tyger Claws. Starting from the top down. Then they wouldn't be able to come after L anymore. And he would never know why she killed them all. Perfect.

"... What's a hen?" L questioned after a moment. Jack had absolutely no clue, but she heard the saying before.

"Go to sleep," Jack finished, stepping out of L's room. The door closed behind her and she matched away from his room with a sense of purpose, straight to the armory. L liked to over prepare. He never admitted it, or even mention the possibility out loud, but all signs pointed to him accepting that eventually the Corpos were going to find him. Find this place. Possibly with a fucking shit load of brats here because Night City wasn't that big. Maybe that day would come, but so far, L was doing a good job of staying hidden.

As for her? Well, Jack wouldn't ever use the word subtle to describe herself. To that end, she starting loading up on big fucking guns and ammo.

Taking everything to a car, Jack passed L's workshop. Seeing it never got less impressive. It wasn't like she didn't get what Lucy had been going on and on about. She was ignorant, not fucking stupid. She got why L's tech was so incredible. Night City dealt with a lot of rolling blackouts -- especially when there was that huge 'cloud' thing that hung over the city like a ceiling. Becca told her about clouds, but she was pretty sure she was messing with her. So, something like the GN Drive? Super useful.

Turning stuff invisible or really tiny? The former already existed, but the latter could also be extremely useful. Jack got it. She just kinda didn't really care. Fuck the world. She had a tattoo it could kiss. The tech wasn't so incredible that L had to kill himself to develop it.

After loading everything up, she mailed Becca. 'Got the stuff. Heading over in five,' Jack informed, closing the trunk.

'Nova. Got some intel from Rogue that should help us along. Cost me a pretty enny to get it,' Becca informed, and Jack was looking forward to it. She hadn't met the fabled 'Queen of the Afterlife' but everyone said she was as reliable as fixers came. Becca flicked her the location and that it was somewhere over in Kabuki. Heart of Tyger Claw territory. Good. Jack stomped on the gas and peeled out of her home, blasting past the defenses so quickly that the garage doors nearly failed to open in time.

How L could stand to just sit in the driver's seat without a hand on the wheel was beyond her. Driving was exciting. The speed, the close calls, the danger… it was utterly intoxicating. She needed to thank Becca again for showing her how to drive. Because of it, she arrived a full minute earlier than the GPS predicted, arriving before an apartment building. Heading inside, she was allowed to enter the elevator before she found herself heading down.

When the doors opened, Jack saw a basement. One that had a half dozen of servers that she recognized from home, marking them as having come from L. The room was cold as she stepped past them, heading to a living room that slid open. The living room was more of a bedroom -- bed in one corner, desk, and so on. Across the room, connected to a bunch of monitors, was a bathtub that Lucy was filling with ice water.

Not far from the tub itself was someone that Jack didn’t recognize. Ink and face hinted at Tyger Claw connection, but her eyes were covered and she was jacked into something. Seemed unconscious. She wasn’t really sure what the girl was doing here, but Jack knew she didn’t know jack shit about netrunning, so it seemed smart to let Lucy and Kiwi do their thing. Especially when they were the experts.

"Yo! Got the goods?" Becca greeted her, grinding broadly at the prospect of getting her hands on some serious hardware. "L didn't skimp out on us, or anything, right?"

"Nah, here's what I got," Jack answered, flicking Becca a still she snapped of the stuffed trunk, earning a whoo-hoo from her. Jack's eyes turned to Kiwi, who was in the process of shrugging off all of her clothes.

"L didn't want in on this?" Kiwi questioned, cocking an eyebrow. Technically speaking, she was supposed to bring L in on the attack. And tell him that the Tyger Claws had attacked him.

"The gonk was asleep," Jack lied, shrugging as she looked away. Kiwi made a soft humming sound. "Figured we'd take care of this simple and clean. He won't even know about it."

"Wouldn't be so sure about that," Lucy remarked from the tub, catching Jack's attention. To clarify, Lucy turned on a monitor that was showing Night City News. A… bunch of garages got hit? So what? Wait, were they looking for L- "Tyger Claws found out about L's side biz of selling their vehicles. They put hits out on all of them. Couple got demolished, others were just shot up. Word out on the street is that anyone that does biz with L is a deadman."

Well, if Jack wasn't already going to kill them, then she was going to now. "Punk bitches. They can't do that," Jack growled, her hands clenching into fists.

To that, Becca scoffed, "Totally can. Tyger Claws just made it really fuckin difficult to be L right now. Gun stores won't be touching him. Medical won't either. Ripperdocs will black list him -- Vik might not, but that'll make him a big target. Low level fixers? They won't touch L either," she listed off the obstacles.

Anger boiled in Jack's chest, "So, we kill them all." She growled the words out, making Lucy and Kiwi trade a glance while Becca nodded in agreement.

"Easier said than done," Lucy pointed out.

"Tyger Claws number in the thousands. Can't say how many for sure, but it's at least five thousand. Maybe up to ten? Might be more," Kiwi added, crossing her arms underneath her bare breasts.

"Good," Jack shot back, not seeing a difference. Five, five thousand, five million. It was all the same. They just fucked around, and now those gonk ass bitches were about to fucking find out. She'd kill every single fucking one of them with her bare hands and she'd fucking enjoy it.

"Stacking that many bodies won't be easy and it'll draw a lot of attention. Becca, tell her what you learned," Lucy instructed before she started to strip down as well. Jack looked to Becca to see that she was shrugging, still in favor of the kill them all plan.

"Rogue gave us a bead on a meeting between the execs of the Tyger Claws. Some big names are attending -- Hiromi Sato, Marcus Ichida, Jun Azegami, and Taki Kazo-"

"Who the fuck are they?" Jack interjected, not caring in the slightest about who they would be killing. Only that they needed killing. Fucking pieces of fucking shit.

Becca held up a hand, "Like I said, Tyger Claw execs. The guys that call the shots for the whole gang. None of them can be called gangoons anymore, so they like to style themselves up like Corpos. They're the ones that put the black mark next to L's name." Becca explained, and Jack just wanted to kill them that much more.

"So?" She questioned, not seeing the point in this little reveal. She would be killing the ones that put the mark there. Good. "Zeroing them won't make it go away, though. The next fuck head is going to think L did the hit and come after him harder. This goes away when they're all corpses," Jack dug her heels in.

Lucy shook her head, "We don't have to kill them all, Jack. We just have to do enough damage to weaken them. The Valentino's and Sixth Street will smell blood in the water, and give them way bigger problems than L. They won't be able to enforce their threats. Meaning that they don't exist." As she spoke, Kiwi crossed the room to the bathtub that was filled water and ice.

That wasn't good enough, Jack decided. They threatened L. They had to die. Full stop. Period.

"Lucy and I are going to slip into the meeting security. You two do the deed, but don't kill these guys," Kiwi instructed as both her and Lucy got into the tube. Kiwi flicked her a couple of names and some faces. "We can klep their access to the Tyger Claw data castle. Drain some accounts, spill some info, and there will be enough blood in the water that every gang in the city will start circling to take a bite out of them. It’s the smart way, Jack.”

Fuck the smart way.

The two slid into the tub, Lucy up front and Kiwi behind her before they started to jack into the Net. She asked Lucy about it once -- if the ice baths got any easier -- and her answer was that they didn’t. But, without complaint, both of them plugged in before going limp as their consciousness went out into the Net. The girl next to the tub jerked for a moment before going still again. She wished L was here. He would know what the fuck they were doing.

“Come on,” Becca said, thumping Jack on the shoulder. “Let’s get this show on tha’ road. David and Falco are posted up on their own position. Got the intel?” She questioned as they headed back up in the elevator. In response, she passed the shard along and heard Becca sputter when she saw how much was on it. “Are we sure L ain’t lying about hating the Tyger Claws?” She questioned and Jack could only give her a shrug.

“I think L just sees them as money bags,” she admitted. It was also probably why that Tyger Claw fixer wasn’t hitting him up for any jobs. Wakakko or something.

"Fair 'nough," Becca decided as they headed up. "It's useful. We cut the head off of the snake, deliver some body shots, then leave the whole thing for the vultures to pick clean."

Jack frowned, thinking that Becca would have been on her side. Becca caught the look as they headed out. "Big fucks small, Jack. That's been true since the dawn of time and it'll keep being true until the final curtain closes. We can bloody the Tyger Claws up something good, but the moment they hit back with force? Doesn't matter how good we are or what tricks we pull out of our asses, we're dead. Even if we don't, we'll be dead in the city cuz no one will be willing to touch us. So, we poke the bear enough to rile it up, bleed it, and let big fuck big while we slip away."

The doors opened, revealing Becca's car and Jack sank into the seat, crossing her arms. Sulking. "I don't like leaving enemies alive," she admitted. That was just bad form. A living enemy was a stab in the back waiting to happen.

Becca shrugged as they sord off to their destination. "I get it, but the Claws aren't some hive mind. Most of them aren't any different than you and L, Jack. They're just trying to get by in this city and they found strength in numbers. Most of 'em couldn't give a hoot about L beyond the fact he's acting like their boogyman and they're scared that they're next." Jack narrowed her eyes, glancing at Becca. She didn't think she would try to empathize with them.

"They're in the gang. If they don't want to die, then they should leave," Jack dismissed, not finding an ounce of empathy in her heart. She'd kill them all if she could. Wipe them off the face of this city. Their reasons were their reasons. It was up to them to decide if they were worth dying over.

Becca hummed, "Easy to say, Jack. Harder to do." The remark told Jack that Becca thought she wasn't seeing something, but Jack just scoffed. If they were so weak that they couldn't run when they should, then they deserved to die for being weak. You didn't need a good reason to die or be killed. Death didn't need a reason at all to be delivered to your door.

"If ya' feel so bad about it, then why zero them?" She questioned, annoyed that she was the only one that wanted to wipe the slate clean. They were a threat to L, so they deserved to fucking die. What was so hard to understand about that fact?

"Cuz we aren't going to be zeroing the rank and file. Most of those gonks just want to provide for their families. Not have to pay protection, but when shit goes down, they can rely on the gang." Becca made a dismissive gesture, "I'll still kill them for a job or if they draw, but that's just biz. What we're doing is personal and if you make you're way up the ranks for the Claws, then you are a genuine piece of filth that I can flatline with a smile. Make sense?" Becca questioned, earning a small shrug.

Sorta, but not really. It was just different, Jack decided. Since she became Subject Zero, it was kill or be killed. No mercy. No justifications or excuses or reasoning. You killed or you died. It just felt… weird to think that there was some kind of middle ground between those two extremes.

"No, but whatever," Jack answered sullenly. Becca just let out a small huff.

"Don't get too down. The fun parts are about to start," Becca remarked, pulling up to a swanky looking building in Kabuki. Buildings generally all looked the same to Jack since the only thing that really changed was some neon sign on the front. This one was noticeably different, though. She didn't see any set on the sides of it and it looked clean. That probably had something to do with the gate that acted as a front door. Both of them got out with Becca hefting her really big gun and putting her shotguns on her back.

Guns didn't really do anything for Jack. She just didn't see the appeal. But, then again, most people weren't biotics. If they were, they'd never want to kill a man with a gun again.

"Hiromi Sato and Marcus Ichida can't be killed in the crossfire. We need what's in their noggins, so check your fire," Becca remarked, strolling to the front door with Jack right behind her.

Annoying. "How many are we dealing with?" Jack asked as they entered a lobby. It looked fancy. Complete with those weird green things. Trees, Jack recalled, walking by the small potted plants. Just funny looking ones in comparison to the palm trees that lined the road. The front desk took notice of them, her expression becoming tense as they headed for the elevator. Then she suddenly dropped like a corpse, spasming but still breathing. The elevator door opened up for them.

"Let's ask," Becca remarked, starting a group call. It rang for a few seconds before Lucy was the one that picked up.

"There's fourteen of them in there. Seven executives and they were each allowed a single bodyguard. We only need Sato and Markus, but the more the merrier." Lucy informed them.

"Implants?" Becca questioned, shouldering her machine gun and leveling it at the door.

"Tyger Claw traditionalists -- biotic joints, neo-fiber, subdermal armor. But one of them has an unlisted Sandy. We'll take some down, but expect to do the bulk of the heavy lifting." Lucy stated as the elevator came to a stop. A smile started to tug at her lips, her heart beating a few ticks faster in anticipation. She missed this feeling. As much as she hated the Orphanage, Jack couldn't say that they didn't provide quality entertainment.

The elevator doors slid open and Jack saw the targets that were marked through a wall. She and Jack shared a look before sharing a nod.

Jack threw down a Lift in front of the door, Becca pulled the trigger and the swanky apartment became filled with the sound of gunfire. Bullets ripped through the wall of the office room that they were using, and no sooner than the first bullet was fired the double doors burst open and Jack's first prey seemed to materialize in the mass effect field. The one with the Sandy.

She put a decent amount of thought on how she'd kill the others. David was the most dangerous. Speed was one hell of an edge. But take away a Sandy users mobility and they became sitting ducks.

Nice to see that her idea worked.

Dark purple energy swirled in the palm of Jack's hand, forming a Lance that she threw at the Asian guy, catching him in the chest. It punched through him, knocking him out of the mass effect field, and to double tap, Jack Blinked over to him with a foot raised that she brought down on the side of his head. When she didn't feel a satisfying crack, she tried again, but this time delivering a Slam. His skull gave out under her boot and no sooner than it did, Jack felt bullets bounce off of her barrier.

Smart guns were trash. They traded stopping power for accuracy, but stopping power is what they needed to get through her barrier. With a snarl of a smile, Jack Blinked into the room, Charging as she did so. The man that shot at her was taking cover behind a table, but with swirling energy in front of her, she tore through the long table and tackled him to the wall. It was like a bug hitting the windshield with how he splattered over it.

She and Becca didn't need to trade words to make a plan. They understood each other. Jack could hear Becca laughing through a wall that had more holes than it was solid. Becca was covering fire, and Jack was the knife that slipped between their ribs. Between the two of them, the Tyger Claws were scrambling at the extreme and sudden violence.

One of the body guards rushed her. He was fast, Jack noticed. Fast enough that his movements were lined in a blur, like someone pressed 5x on the fast forward button. A blade bounced off of her barrier, leaving her to retaliate with a Push aimed at his gut. Even as he was flung away, he hacked at her, delivering five more hits. Bullets pinged off of her barrier and Jack heard Becca stop firing a short second before there was an explosion.

Becca threw herself through the holes she made, pushed forward by the fiery explosion. One of her shotguns came loose, but Becca rolled to her feet, bullets bouncing off of her subdermal armor. Jack wasn't idle, throwing herself at the Tyger Claws that still lived. She didn't even care to count them. As far as she was concerned, they were all dead. She just had to kill them.

The one that she threw wasn't done for the count, having flipped to land on the window that cracked under foot, then shattered when he launched himself at her with a sword leveled at her heart. A laugh escaped Jack, "Fuck yeah!" She hollered, throwing a Lance at him, but the fucker managed to deflect it with his sword, using it to push him to the ground, landing on what was left of the table. He flung a throwing knife at her, only for it to bounce off of her barrier, before he closed the distance.

He was fast. Jack decided, getting pushed back as he overwhelmed her with powerful attacks. The barrier held strong -- she could tank a shotgun blast to the face with it -- but the man was whittling it away with a dozen blows in a single second, forcing her to retreat. A foot caught her in the stomach, knocking her back, and when she flung a mass effect field at him, trying to drive him away, he simply flipped to keep his feet under him as he landed on a wall.

Becca started firing at him, and the fucker started cutting the bullets in half as he ran a long the wall, rushing Becca. Anger flooded Jack's veins. Fucker. He was supposed to be fighting her.

With a snarl, Jack charged forward, slamming into him when he lunged for Becca. He recovered quickly, turning his attention back to her. Jack just narrowly dodged a thrust at her throat, and that was only because her back foot hit something. Falling on her ass, Jack realized it was Becca's shotgun. The bodyguard stood above her, switching his grip to plunge down with the blade, but Becca saved her by taking a shot at him. His upper torso blurred, dodging the bullets.

When Jack leveled the shotgun with his gut and pulled the trigger? Not so much.

Jack knew about the recoil of the shotgun, so she used a mass effect field to eat the worst of it. Or so she thought, because the damn thing ripped her shoulder from its socket and sent her sliding on her ass a good dozen feet until her back slammed into a wall. The breath was knocked from her lungs, but the bodyguards' guts were splashed over the floor along with his spine. "FUCK!" Jack howled in pain, dropping the shotgun before Becca pressed her machine gun to the bodyguard's head and pulled the trigger, killing him. "Who was that guy?!"

"I think we just killed Miyamoto Musashi," Becca breathed, panting.

"Who?" Jack asked, dropping the shotgun and tested her shoulder. Just dislocated. Grabbing her wrist, she positioned the arm, lining it up, before she shoved the arm back into its socket by hammering it in.

"A legend in the making over in Japan. Took the name of some super famous samurai guy. Dumb gonk should have stayed in Japan. So, please tell me you didn't break your arm," Becca said, looking at her. "There's a reason I'm rockin these oversized arms, Jack. That shotgun will take your arm off easily."

"I'm fine," Jack dismissed the concern, finding herself satisfied with the fight. She needed to look into getting some fancy implants. That was awesome. "Did we kill the guys?" Jack said, looking around the office to find that no one was standing up anymore. She kind of hoped so.

"No," Lucy answered over the phone. "We took them down when things started getting messy. Didn't want them caught in the crossfire. That was a lot louder than we expected, though. Becca, hit them with plan B."

Plan B?

"Righto!" Becca agreed, striding over and digging something out of her pockets. The shard that was pinched between her fingers was comically small in comparison to her hands, but she slid them into an available port in both Marcus and Sato. "How hot are things gonna get?"

"No police, yet. But they had automatic security. I'm guessing in case they were betrayed by one of the other executives. Tyger Claws are going to be incoming hard and fast, you two. Grab them and get out now."

Jack smiled to herself as she picked one of the fat Japanese fucks up and threw him over her shoulder. Good. Very good. She didn't want any of that simple and clean shit. Jack was in her element when things got messy…

And from the sounds of it, things were about to get messy.